Jan’s Weekly Farm Update 2/9/2018

Circumstances beyond our control are what we have been experiencing on the homestead. After a lovely visit to California I returned home to a sick husband. Since I am basically a roach I was not too worried. That was my first mistake. This flu bug did not sneak into our house under cover of darkness and take us by surprise; it knocked down the door in broad daylight and hit us over the head with a sledgehammer. One by one we succumbed to this beastly bug and for the past two weeks we have been trying to claw our way back to wellness. We have finally turned a corner and things are slowly returning to normal.

We have decided to keep Annie. I am not sure what this arrangement will look like quite yet, but I am seriously considering putting her in with the herd. After researching and reading up on how other people are handling this type of situation I feel that she is not a health risk to the other goats. Since transmission is rare unless it is from dam to kid then the logical solution is to make sure that we do not breed Annie. As we move into spring and start building permanent paddocks for the goats I will keep you updated on how we are handling the herd dynamics.

As the days get longer we are starting to have more sunshine hitting our property. We are located on the northwest side of a ridge and we get no sunshine whatsoever in the winter months. The weather has been nice here for the past few days and it is lovely to see the sunlight hit the chicken house in the morning. The girls enjoying sunny mornings in the field scratching is a sight that warms every homesteader’s heart. It is also shining on our garden spot, which will begin to warm our soil and make sure that it is ready for our seedlings. Ashley is our gardener and she already had starts growing in the basement. Although spring has not yet sprung we are getting a taste of what is to come.

Farm Updates:

We have a couple of new roosters on the homestead and they are doing great with the ladies. I see the flock free ranging further out in the field then they have in a long time. It is nice to see them feeling so safe and protected. We have not had any loss from aerial predators since they have been on the job.

We spent an afternoon this past weekend working in the goat houses. The goats are growing so it was time to move up feeders and mineral containers. When they get taller unfortunately they potty in their feeders, etc. if they are too low. With everything at the correct height it makes for far less waste and all of the receptacles stay clean. Yay!

Jo our GOS gilt is going to be harvested. Unfortunately she did not respond to the hormone shot and she has not come into a heat that is strong enough for the boar to show any interest. She is such a sweet girl that we are saddened by this news. The breeder has customers who are looking for meat so he is taking care of those details on his end. He generously offered us a GOS/Berkshire mix gilt that he would deliver bred, however we are partial to GOS so we are waiting for some spring piglets.

Hazel and Humphrey are doing great! We are beginning to have some nice weather and they can be found up on the hillside grazing.

A Brief Introduction

Welcome to Little Red Hen Farms aka the Tucker-Parker Homestead. We are a small family working to make a previously neglected but lovely piece of Oregon land into a working and productive homestead. We currently have around 60 heritage laying chickens, a few turkeys, 3 Gloustershire Old Spot pigs, 2 Kune Kune pigs, and our two lawnmowers, oops, goats, George and Martha with three more coming soon.